Whilst staying at “Ellingham House”:https://www.silvertraveladvisor.com/review/accommodation/210314-review-ellingham-house in Whitby, we frequently walked down Skinner Street to get into town and couldn’t help but noticing a life-size sculpture of a man with a camera, made from what looked like steel wire. Whilst exploring Whitby, we spotted two similar sculptures: three women who appeared to be sorting fish, and another of a man mending his fishing nets.
A Google search told us that all these sculptures were part of “The Whitby Sculpture Trail”:https://www.emmastothard.com/the-whitby-sculpture-trail which features nine sculptures in total, all produced by Emma Stothard.
The photographer was a local man, Frank Meadow Sutcliffe, famous around the world for his pictures of everyday life in Whitby. His camera was focused down the road where his studio used to be.
The Herring Girls represented the tough independent women who followed fishing fleets by train, ready to gut and pack the fish wherever the boats came in along the coastline. They were in teams of three with two gutting the fish and a third packing them into barrels.
A map of the trail can be found “online”:https://www.emmastothard.com/the-whitby-sculpture-trail, and next time we’re in Whitby, I’m determined to search out the rest.
